16 birthday + 300 don't know what to do

[Nickisgodofmacs]

I am celebrating my birthday this weekend (WHOOPEEE!!!!!) and my parents told me i can get one thing i want as long as its under 300. They mentioned waiting till Oct. to upgrade my voyager for the Storm2(im on Verizon and moving to AT&T is impossible), buying the pair of Sennheiser 380 HD Pro's ive drooling over for about a year now or buying a monitor, if i wanted to do the monitor id love to do 24" with hdmi and dvi,dvi is more important than hdmi but it is nice to have, and if its makes the quota a Television tuner so i can watch Television and use it for video games, when if ever play. Thanks in advanced. I really am in a three way tie.

[creon]

Advice I received from someone on this forum that I have used a lot:

Wait three months and if you still want X then buy it.

You would be surprised what waiting three months generates; you either still want it or realize that the item you have been drooling over isn't all that you thought.

Best of luck to you and Happy Birthday!

[HBOC]

I would wait until black friday!! They say they are expecting really bad sales this holiday shopping season, even worse than last year, and if you can wait, i would! Things won't get more expensive if you wait, atleast regular sales and regular retail prices, that is...

[ProstheticHead]

The Storm sucks. Besides, you're 16, wtf do you need a smartphone for.

Headphones are headphones. They'll never compete with a wonderful surround system. I don't care how many channels they claim to bring together, all in all you have two cups stuck to your ears.

My best bet is to snag a decent monitor. Watching TV on a monitor is lame, but a large monitor is always a fun new toy.

If you want to play games just get a good TV. Run TV-out and watch movies from your PC on it.

[HBOC]

Originally Posted by ProstheticHead

The Storm sucks. Besides, you're 16, wtf do you need a smartphone for.

Headphones are headphones. They'll never compete with a wonderful surround system. I don't care how many channels they claim to bring together, all in all you have two cups stuck to your ears.

My best bet is to snag a decent monitor. Watching TV on a monitor is lame, but a large monitor is always a fun new toy.

If you want to play games just get a good TV. Run TV-out and watch movies from your PC on it.

i have a 24" HD monitor and I play my 360 on it. I have an LCD TV, but i like the monitor better

[thegoldenmackid]

Originally Posted by ProstheticHead

Headphones are headphones. They'll never compete with a wonderful surround system. I don't care how many channels they claim to bring together, all in all you have two cups stuck to your ears.

At nearly any price range up until five digits, headphones will produce better sound then speakers.

[mcpryon2]

Originally Posted by thegoldenmackid

At nearly any price range up until five digits, headphones will produce better sound then speakers.

I'd have to agree.

[monkey86]

The Storm sucks. Besides, you're 16, wtf do you need a smartphone for besides being some trendy twitterfag.

you really need some prozac bud.

its a *birthday* thread - he wants to buy something, if you dont have any useful/helpful advice to give, dont give any

At nearly any price range up until five digits, headphones will produce better sound then speakers.

i agree. i would personally go for the headphones as you can save for a kickass monitor ^^

[nullx86]

Originally Posted by monkey86

you really need some prozac bud.

its a *birthday* thread - he wants to buy something, if you dont have any useful/helpful advice to give, dont give any

QFT, remember what your mother taught you, "if you dont have anything nice to say, dont say anything". Jeeze, like the quoted said, its a birthday thread. and i'm 17 and I have a pretty advanced phone, and i tweet. that make me a twitterfag? If the guy wants to buy a phone and tweet, thats his right. Hes paying for it, he can do whatever he wants to with it. It shouldnt care or matter to you. The fact that your making a fuss about it shows that you are a control freak and have nothing better to do then troll people on a mac forum. Go back to 4chan. [/rant]

i agree. i would personally go for the headphones as you can save for a kickass monitor ^^

Get the headphones, totally worth it.

[sishaw]

Originally Posted by ProstheticHead

T
Headphones are headphones. They'll never compete with a wonderful surround system. I don't care how many channels they claim to bring together, all in all you have two cups stuck to your ears.

Don't entirely agree. Surround is great for movies, but if you want to hear details in music, a nice pair of headphones is great, maybe better than speakers because they trim down external noise. I have a pair of Sennheisers and they're wonderful.

[silentnite]

If your birthday is this week that would make you a Virgo like me or in another week a Libra like my sister. Happy 16 Birthday just the same.

Now you got some cash to spend and your not sure what to buy, you could always save it for later. You will have some great sales coming your way for the holidays. One thing I would not get is a cell phone. You'll end up spending far to much. A good monitor is not a bad idea & will go a long way. What ever you decide to do think it over wisely $300 is a lot of cash.

[freepeacesweet]

Originally Posted by Nickisgodofmacs

I am celebrating my birthday this weekend (WHOOPEEE!!!!!) and my parents told me i can get one thing i want as long as its under 300. They mentioned waiting till Oct. to upgrade my voyager for the Storm2(im on Verizon and moving to AT&T is impossible), buying the pair of Sennheiser 380 HD Pro's ive drooling over for about a year now or buying a monitor, if i wanted to do the monitor id love to do 24" with hdmi and dvi,dvi is more important than hdmi but it is nice to have, and if its makes the quota a Television tuner so i can watch Television and use it for video games, when if ever play. Thanks in advanced. I really am in a three way tie.

I would skip the phone. The headphones would be cool but a monitor/TV option would be a good buy too.

Here is my recomendations for a monitor/TV under $300 although it's an inch of what you want.

LG M237WD-PM 23-Inch Class Widescreen Multi-Function LCD Monitor/TV available from Amazon or New egg. I just spent 12 hours looking for one for myself and this was the best i could find for the money with 1080p and plenty of connections for all your toys.

[OnYourKnees]

Happy birthday.

Get the monitor.

[dacreativeguy]

Dont waste your money on a new set of speakers. You get more mileage from a cheap pair of sneakers.

[Gmaster]

Originally Posted by dacreativeguy

Dont waste your money on a new set of speakers. You get more mileage from a cheap pair of sneakers.

Thanks! Advice from Mr. Joel. That put a smile on my face.

[Nickisgodofmacs]

Yes i am a virgo and damn proud of it while my father is a week later and is a libra. Its been a long week but well deserved. I am not getting this as birthday money but as a present from my parents also i have to mention i currently have my fathers used voyager with a texting plan while both of my parents have blackberry storms and personally find them as a good, not great, verizon wireless "iphone" of sorts. On the topic of twittering and all. I do tweet but its not my life or anything. I am planning on becoming a Database Administrator and as far as i have come across you do need to know how to network these devices together and with the server.

I was looking last night into the sennheisers again and still my favorite for the past 6 months + is the 380HD Pros and also you have to figure 1 hour bus ride one way does sound a lot nicer with 200 earphones than with a $1 pair and random long car rides to Lake George(5 hours and grandparents live there 1/2 of the year, NYC 2 hours+ considering traffic) and home enjoyment.

I just bought myself an archos 5 after selling my 32gb ipod touch. i have over 100gbs of Flac so i believe pro syle headphones would be a great investment.

On the subject of monitors i have been looking into dells 23 to 24 inch monitors, i believe any bigger and my whitebook cant take full advantage of its total pixel count. I am currently in a Computer Graphics class in school and we use 24" imacs. I love the feel of the screen and my little macbook feels smaller and smaller everyday. Although the most important part for me is to have the hdmi and dvi inputs and not a Television tuner, nice feature but nice inputs are more important, and I am not much of gamer at all. I have a wii so not much fun for long periods but i am thinking of buying a blue-ray player or something with a lots of detail.

Im looking into pro stuff just some nicer, i hate to use the word but prosumer" gear. In relationship to headphones and phone.

I am unsure if this helped with some peoples advice but i really am spilt three ways. I did notice today that my parents Television would look really nice with my macbook but im still not sure it can drive it. It is a 37 or 40 LCD no dvi but does hdmi which i guess might work.

[Jodorowsky]

Well, if you're planning on using the headphones for bus rides, I would reconsider. I'm not sure, but those probably use a 1/4 inch jack rather than a 1/8, so using them with a portable wouldn't be super economical. But if you also need them for monitoring, audio editing or something go for it. Just don't buy them if you don't plan on using an amp with them.

[alphaod]

Originally Posted by Nickisgodofmacs

Im looking into pro stuff just some nicer, i hate to use the word but prosumer" gear. In relationship to headphones and phone.

I'd stay away from looking at "pro" headphones and gear, because once your in that territory, you'll end up wanting all the fun stuff which will cost you a lot more than $300

Though, if you want better advice on headphones, I'd check out head-fi.org

Just don't ever mention Bose.

[tristangage]

Originally Posted by Jodorowsky

Well, if you're planning on using the headphones for bus rides, I would reconsider. I'm not sure, but those probably use a 1/4 inch jack rather than a 1/8, so using them with a portable wouldn't be super economical. But if you also need them for monitoring, audio editing or something go for it. Just don't buy them if you don't plan on using an amp with them.

Couldn't he just buy a cheap adapter for the jack?

[omarjk]

Originally Posted by tristangage

Couldn't he just buy a cheap adapter for the jack?

Unless Jarodowsky is suggesting that unless used with a high powered output device such as an amp their quality would be not be utilised?

[GoKyu]

I had some Sennheiser 280's, which sounded incredible, but the cups tore up too easily - I'd say within 6 months, they were starting to tear, and after a year, it was just a hassle to wear them anymore.

I went back to Guitar Center and they recommended a pair of Ultrasone HFI-450's, and I think they sound even BETTER than the Sennheisers. They also have a pro line, which you might wanna look into (but as someone else said, once you go pro, you're paying for it...)

[Nickisgodofmacs]

Well i got a blackberry tour and im loving it. The archos 5 is in the mail. I know the pro gear very well. My dad has studio JBLs and whole massive setup. (I wanna take it from him). I have not used the hd 380 pro but i have used a lot actually the 450PXCs they are really nice but i don't need the active audio canceling. The monitor has kind of faded but i have been looking into these two dells. ST2310 and the ST2410. They are cheap but idk about the quality of the panel i do know dell does make a tough laptop (both parents have dell laptops, no problems 2 and 5/6 years in) and i hope they do the same with their monitors.

[psingh01]

Originally Posted by Nickisgodofmacs

Well i got a blackberry tour and im loving it. The archos 5 is in the mail. I know the pro gear very well. My dad has studio JBLs and whole massive setup. (I wanna take it from him). I have not used the hd 380 pro but i have used a lot actually the 450PXCs they are really nice but i don't need the active audio canceling. The monitor has kind of faded but i have been looking into these two dells. ST2310 and the ST2410. They are cheap but idk about the quality of the panel i do know dell does make a tough laptop (both parents have dell laptops, no problems 2 and 5/6 years in) and i hope they do the same with their monitors.

I think I bought the ST2410 earlier this year and didn't like it. The blacks looked faded out. The price was great but compared to my previous dell monitor the image looked bad. I returned it and got one of the higher end Dell 24" LCDs. I forgot the model number but it cost around $500 back in May. It has an HDMI and I believe component connectors among others. I hooked up my PS3 to it to watch bluray movies and play games and I've been very happy with it.

[monkey86]

I am unsure if this helped with some peoples advice but i really am spilt three ways. I did notice today that my parents Television would look really nice with my macbook but im still not sure it can drive it. It is a 37 or 40 LCD no dvi but does hdmi which i guess might work.

i have my mac connected to a 32" led tv via hdmi and it works a treat

[Nickisgodofmacs]

Originally Posted by monkey86

i have my mac connected to a 32" led tv via hdmi and it works a treat

Is it a whitebook or is it a MBP? id love to do that...if only i had enough for a Television. How much if i may ask did you buy your Television for